Hot Libertarian Bitch

Hero

Phil and I went to see Hero , starring Jet Li, tonight. It was excellent. The plot was much more nuanced and satisfying than the trailers would have you believe.

I'm holding out for a hero.

Big in Japan

My boy Andrew is in Japan for a year through the JET program , and he has just updated his blog with a mammoth post detailing his first month there. My favorite part:

Great news I have new Japanese friends! The bad news is they are in a cult. Well not really but it is a weird religious organization. They stopped by tried to talk to me and then dissappeard because we simply couldn’t talk. They appear like two hours later with a new brouchure in English. Then they called this girl who spoke really great English and we talked for a while. She explained about this cosmic energy and such.

Josh's New PowerBook

Josh is blogging about getting started with his new PowerBook . It's always fun to see someone (re)enter the Mac fold, and learn about the types of things that new Mac users like and dislike. Welcome back to the Mac community, Josh!

Dell 2001FP

I decided to spend some of the money I earned over the summer on a new display. As sexy as the Apple displays are, it's impossible to beat the value of the Dell 2001FP , so that's what I ordered. 1600x1200 goodness, here I come...

Identity Crisis

Every time I walk through Coventry, especially the area near the Grog Shop, I am reminded of #3 on Maddox's list of video games you'll never play .

It's the year 2004 and nobody knows what's cool anymore! Drift aimlessly from one social trend to the next as you eventually find yourself converging to the ultra-hip world of box-framed glasses and studded belts known as "EMO."

Kids for Kerry

Reading through the New York Times today, I was amused and dismayed by a picture on the front cover. It shows John Kerry in New York with some kids from a group named Kids for Kerry. To me, this is emblematic of just how screwed up our political system is. These kids are maybe 10 years old. I seriously doubt that they have developed a political philosophy of any substance. But that doesn't matter in America! Our politics are more like sports - people pick one of two teams (with little to no philosophical foundation for their decision) and then yell, "go team, go!" without really knowing why.

People allow themselves to take a shortcut and just pick "the lesser of two evils", without thinking much about what our government really should do. It cracks me up to see the number of people walking around campus with Kerry buttons. Of course Bush is no good, with his wars that make us less safe, but John Kerry isn't any better. Every time I hear about John Kerry's protectionist economic policies and talk of "Benedict Arnold companies" engaged in outsourcing, I want to puke.

I plan to vote for Michael Badnarik in November. Feel free to criticize me for "wasting" my vote, but at least I believe in something, instead of just voting against the bigger idiot.

Chipotle Calories

As anyone who goes to Case can tell you, Chipotle is a staple of the local cuisine. I've gone to their website a couple times to look for nutrition info, out of curiosity, but I've never been able to find it. Seems that there is a reason that Chipotle doesn't publish nutrition information. I knew that Chipotle wasn't really good for you, but 340 calorie tortillas? Damn.

IT Conversations

I have recently become aware that IT Conversations rocks. I heard about the site a few months ago, but didn't have an opportunity to listen to any of the conversations until recently. When my flight from New York to Raleigh was delayed 10 hours, I had plenty of time to listen. Then I listened to some more on the way back to Ohio from Durham. Now that I'm living off campus, I have about a 30 minute walk to campus, so I've been loading up my iPod with conversations. So far my favorites are Paul Graham , Ben and Mena Trott , and Tim O'Reilly .

Second Day of Classes

Today was the second day of classes, and I had three of them.

First up was COSI 100 - Intro to Human Communications. I signed up for this class to improve my public speaking skills, and it looks like I will get plenty of practice. For each class, everyone has to give two 2-3 minute speeches on a short prompt. Maybe I will post my speeches (or outlines of them) on this blog. The instructor for this course seems really good. He's an older guy, and he seems very interested in what Sean would call "The Higher Learning". Today we spent most of the period going around the room and explaining why we were taking the class and what we had learned at Case so far.

Next, I had ENTP 310 - Entrepreneurial Finance. The material covered in this class sounds pretty interesting to me. However, I'm worried that since I'm taking accounting simultaneously, I may have some problems (almost everyone else in the class is a business major who has already taken accounting). Still, I've never been one to back down, and I figure I can teach myself any accounting I need to know. This class is going to require some case analysis, which I usually enjoy. I am somewhat pissed that the professor wants everyone to spend $60 on a bunch of DRMed PDF files which will have no resale value.

Finally, I had EECS 423 - Distributed Systems. This class is being taught by Liberatore, not Podgurski, as I thought. That's probably a good thing. I've never had Liberatore before, but my intuition is that he and Podgurski are about equal in terms of teaching ability. However, Liberatore seems more enthusiastic about teaching, which is worth something. Projects comprise a large portion of the grade, so hopefully I'll be able to write some interesting programs.

CWRU Books Online

I have often said that there should be an online database of the books used for each course at Case, available at least two weeks before the beginning of each semester. This would make it easier to order books online without having to worry that you won't get them until too late. Well, Phil just pointed out to me that such a database has been created. You can view it here . Cheers to the bookstore for helping to eliminate the need to pay their inflated prices.

First Day of Classes

Today was the first day of classes. I only have one class on Monday, and it's Accounting 101. The class is being taught by a lecturer, not a professor, which in my experience means it will either be a really good or really bad class. Some lecturers seem to be people who couldn't get jobs as professors, and really have no business teaching (Izad from EECS 281 comes to mind). Other lecturers are people who have been in industry for most of their careers and teach because they enjoy it. The lecturer for accounting appears to fall into the later category. He's spent 20+ years in industry, and seems to be an effective communicator. On a cool note, he's extended an invitation for everyone in the class to have lunch with him (on his dime) in groups of 2-3 at That Place on Belleflower. I don't know many profs who would be willing to spend their own money to socialize with students.

Tomorrow I've got three classes, starting at 10am. I better go to bed...

A Walk Across Campus

Do not underestimate the simple pleasure of walking across a sunny college campus with lots of pretty girls around.

Back to School

After a fun and challenging summer with IBM Extreme Blue, I'm back in Ohio for my final semester of university. Today my dad and I rented a U-Haul and took a load of stuff to the apartment I'm going to be living in. This will be my first time living off campus, and I'm pretty excited about it. The apartment is in a great location, very close to Coventry. Chris helped me unload, and then we had lunch at Chipotle, which is maybe 50 yards from the apartment. Tomorrow I'll move in for good.

Expect to see this blog updated more frequently in the coming weeks.